Thameslink/ Class 700 Progress

[bengley]

Can't the shoes pick up the juice as they are always down on a 700 if there is a third rail in this neutral area as posted above? you still need to power off then despite the conductor rail?

There is no third rail in this area. The third rail ends at Farringdon.
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Sooo two VCB's then ?



Does it have an APC magnet thingy ?

I would assume so

 

[swt_passenger]

You still have to shut off upon entering a neutral section.

Presumably in this particular case though, a 700 leaving northbound will be on a downhill gradient to pass under the other lines?

Probably not worth worrying about too much, I'm sure the positioning of the neutral section won't be random, it'll have been designed this way for a reason.

 

[bengley]

Presumably in this particular case though, a 700 leaving northbound will be on a downhill gradient to pass under the other lines?

Probably not worth worrying about too much, I'm sure the positioning of the neutral section won't be random, it'll have been designed this way for a reason.

It will be, but until the rear half of the train is off the fairly steep uphill gradient out of STP the downhill gradient won't have much effect on train speed.

 

[DerekC]

Probably not worth worrying about too much, I'm sure the positioning of the neutral section won't be random, it'll have been designed this way for a reason.

I think it has been put in the least-worst place given that a neutral section somewhere in the canal tunnels is essential. It will be an interesting section to drive, though, given that the ETCS transition point, the ATO pickup point and the neutral section are very close to each other. I hope somebody has remembered to get ATO to do the right thing at the neutral section. In theory (If ATO controlled the front and rear half traction packages separately) it could coast on the front half and then the back half. I don't think it does, though.

 

[387star]

Sorry misread comment above that mentions conductor rail in this section so was confused but it's overhead
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This I misread it's the heat!

700 003 became the first train to venture under its own power through the canal tunnels that link St Pancras low level and the ECML at Belle Isle overnight, running Cricklewood- St Pancras LL (A) canal Tunnels Belle Isle canal tunnels St Pancras LL (B) then back to Cricklewood. Running in an engineers possession after the last service train had departed
primarily to test the rigid overhead conductor rail and new overhead line neutral section
that also features conductor rail, a first installation of this ohns type.

 

[gsnedders]

Don't they give incentives to get people trying to get off first, rather than just queuing calmly and thinking it's all a bit of a laugh?

Incentivising them was done once. I believe it's not been done since because you see number of injuries increase, and of course you need to do a risk analysis of your experiments!

 

[absolutelymilk]

I assume there were no problems today?

 

[AM9]

I assume there were no problems today?

That will disappoint some of the posters here.

 

[Bald Rick]

I assume there were no problems today?

The first up 700 on the MML (1W11) was cancelled - 'problem at depot' according to announcements. However the diagram had a 700 on it later in the day, and it was running to time.

I caught 700s to and from London today, and both trips were faultless.

 

[samuelmorris]

Another ride on one today, this time 700104 - another 'purely by chance' ride. PIS seemed to be working correctly, the door opening time still isn't great at Farringdon (15s) but was spot on at City Thameslink & Blackfriars. 2 mins dwell at every station though, not entirely sure why, the service wasn't timetabled for it.

I think I found out why the 'new train smell' seems less pleasant than most other odours - it occurred to me today that, to me at least, it smells exactly like the inside of a hospital oxygen mask :P

 

[girothedog]

Caught 700114 briefly today on 2W41 from Gatwick to Three Bridges. Very impressed with train, build quality, amount of space etc. Working took 13 minutes instead of the booked 5 but there was no indication there was any fault with the unit. In fact there were no announcements at all. Most of the 'Southern' seemed to be in chaos due to the hole at Forest Hill, amongst other things.

 

[55003]

That will disappoint some of the posters here.

Lack of operational air conditioning was posted on various social media sites

 

[Minstral25]

Lack of operational air conditioning was posted on various social media sites

I saw a lot of complaints about lack of Air Conditioning on the new trains as well

 

[jon0844]

Yesterday and today are good days to test air conditioning.

 

[Bald Rick]

Air con has been working fine for me on all 7 trips so far, including yesterday.
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Another ride on one today, this time 700104 - another 'purely by chance' ride. PIS seemed to be working correctly, the door opening time still isn't great at Farringdon (15s) but was spot on at City Thameslink & Blackfriars. 2 mins dwell at every station though, not entirely sure why, the service wasn't timetabled for it.

In my trips I've only had one trip and one station (also Farringdon) where the doors didn't open almost instantly. Also punters haven't yet realised that they don't need to push the open buttons in the core

Re the dwell times, I'm finding that the trains are generally arriving earlier than planned as the acceleration is better, and passengers are on/off much more quickly than with the 'old' stock, so it feels like the train is standing around doing nothing when it is waiting the correct departure time.

 

[AM9]

Air con has been working fine for me on all 7 trips so far, including yesterday.
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In my trips I've only had one trip and one station (also Farringdon) where the doors didn't open almost instantly. Also punters haven't yet realised that they don't need to push the open buttons in the core

Re the dwell times, I'm finding that the trains are generally arriving earlier than planned as the acceleration is better, and passengers are on/off much more quickly than with the 'old' stock, so it feels like the train is standing around doing nothing when it is waiting the correct departure time.

That is encouraging as the whole design rationale is to get snappy dwell times in the core. With ATO, the door opening should be as quick as any tube doors. Does the driver have to initiate their opening or will the ATO system do that when it stops the train in the correct position?

 

[Bald Rick]

That is encouraging as the whole design rationale is to get snappy dwell times in the core. With ATO, the door opening should be as quick as any tube doors. Does the driver have to initiate their opening or will the ATO system do that when it stops the train in the correct position?

Trains doing what they were designed to do - who'd have thought?

The ATO will do it. Indeed I'm not so sure that it isn't the ATO, but just the ASDO/CSDE beacon, which means they are auto opening now. But Class 377/5 will know.

 

[asylumxl]

Air con has been working fine for me on all 7 trips so far, including yesterday.

I'd say on my trips one unit seemed to have, to say the least, anaemic AC...

 

[RobShipway]

I hope to be travelling at some point tomorrow on a class 700 from Blackfriars to St Pancras depending on the timing.

 

[Supercoss]

45 seconds dwell time during peak hours has been quoted, 'driver' presses door close buttons to start ATO departure phase on the flip side if 'driver' advised to hold and stop & stay in the platform whilst in ATO mode this is achieved by simply...... NOT closing the doors

 

[168lover]

Any ideas what 700s are working today and possibly tommorow please? I may try and nab a ride on one from Gatwick Airport to St Pancras tommorow.

 

[neilm]

Has a 700 broken down in the West Hampstead area?

 

[Starmill]

I enjoyed my trip yesterday on a 700, but it was only a short one due to my train from the North being delayed.

Pleasant:
Doors 'snap' open very quickly and the doorway is nice and wide with good circulation space.
Good climate control - very hot day but the coaches were all a nice even and comfortable temperature
Good ride - immeasurably better than the 387 I caught over the same stretch on the way back
Some bays have good window view

Unpleasant:
Cloth covering on seats is awfully itchy
Seats are a bit too hard. Better shaped than a 387 but not nearly as good as the Class 385 version, which is the same seat but specified differently. Sandbagging on a cheap, uncomfortable seat exactly as members on this board predicted, and they were told they were wrong.
Lack of sockets: slightly annoying
Lack of armrests: annoying
Lack of table: very annoying

 

[Hophead]

Any ideas what 700s are working today and possibly tommorow please? I may try and nab a ride on one from Gatwick Airport to St Pancras tommorow.

Considering the major disruption on the BML today at Forest Hill and Gatwick, I'd be surprised if anyone can say with any certainty.

 

[sd0733]

Had a trip on 700104 on the late running 14:35 from brighton today and 700109 from city thameslink.to st Pancras.
The units themselves are good, the ride is good, the screens are really useful and they are bright and airy. But the seats i found to be awful. Ive done loads of travel.on 387s and always thought they were comfortable with being tall but not impressed with the hardness or the matrial used its very rough. Quite a few people were commenting on how basic they are without arm rests, tables,plugs etc. A lot expected a new train to have power points. Have to admit the large loadings through the core were impressive how it swallowed large loads in seconds. But on 109 all the external screens werent working, they were either fully illuminated then changed to blocks all.over the screen.
Nice units am sure will do the job well but definitely lacking in certain areas.

noticed at Three Bridges all the 8 car ones are fitted with first class will this mean that once a 700 route is guaranteed first class that they will all have them or will it run declassified on Suttons etc like it does now?

 

[bengley]

45 seconds dwell time during peak hours has been quoted, 'driver' presses door close buttons to start ATO departure phase on the flip side if 'driver' advised to hold and stop & stay in the platform whilst in ATO mode this is achieved by simply...... NOT closing the doors

Of course, once the doors are closed, you still have to press ATO start to make the train go.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Trains doing what they were designed to do - who'd have thought?

The ATO will do it. Indeed I'm not so sure that it isn't the ATO, but just the ASDO/CSDE beacon, which means they are auto opening now. But Class 377/5 will know.

They don't auto open in the sense you're thinking (yet)

The doors must be released by the driver, at which point all doors open and passengers don't need to press the open buttons

 

[samuelmorris]

Also punters haven't yet realised that they don't need to push the open buttons in the core

Based on my experience of the tube, many never will :P
People who presumably aren't tourists as they are ready and waiting the correct side of the train still go to press the door open buttons as the train slows to a stop. It's even more entertaining on the Northern line 95TS when they go to press where the button used to be before they were removed during the refurbishment!

Every GTR service I've been on lately has been 10-20 mins late so can't comment on waiting for the timetable but in the core that was standard practice for even 319s running to time as they seemed to allow 2 mins or so slack off-peak at each station.

Not found the unit with dodgy A/C yet, comparing my experience on the 700104 yesterday to 387201 this evening, even before the train was heavily loaded, it was significantly warmer inside than the 700.

 

[physics34]

I enjoyed my trip yesterday on a 700, but it was only a short one due to my train from the North being delayed.

Pleasant:
Doors 'snap' open very quickly and the doorway is nice and wide with good circulation space.
Good climate control - very hot day but the coaches were all a nice even and comfortable temperature
Good ride - immeasurably better than the 387 I caught over the same stretch on the way back
Some bays have good window view

Unpleasant:
Cloth covering on seats is awfully itchy
Seats are a bit too hard. Better shaped than a 387 but not nearly as good as the Class 385 version, which is the same seat but specified differently. Sandbagging on a cheap, uncomfortable seat exactly as members on this board predicted, and they were told they were wrong.
Lack of sockets: slightly annoying
Lack of armrests: annoying
Lack of table: very annoying

pretty much my exact view too

 

[Class 466]

700112 Has entered service this morning

 

[AM9]

700112 Has entered service this morning

Roll on when we get the whole fleet and London Bridge through platforms are available. Most passengers will soon learn how things work and the flows will be so much better.
Of course tere will be the odd bad days, like power failures, flooding in tunnels, overheated rails, but none of those events are specific to class 700s.